Marissa - Audio Take 1 (1)

After being delivered from exile by the Persians, God's people returned home to rebuild and restore their way of life. Some became obsessed with following the commandments, adding more rules and burdens on themselves and others. They focused on extravagant displays of worship instead of true fidelity. Others became complacent and fell back into their old ways. The prophets tried to warn and guide them, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. Eventually, after 400 years of silence, Alexander the Great conquered Persia and captured Jerusalem. I wish you could have heard it, the shouts of jubilation and singing through tears of joy when the people came home from exile, deliverance had come by unusual means. The Persians, led by Cyrus the Great, had defeated Babylon and let God's people go back to their country, rebuild their temple, restore their way of life, and try to put things back together. Remember those 613 laws we talked about earlier? Determined to not let what just happened happen again, some people became obsessed with the commandments, observing them more strictly, even adding to them, keeping up new rules and requirements, too burdensome for anyone to bear, and imposing them on others. Some became ostentatious in our appointed feasts and showy displays of vain offerings and over-the-top complications. Even God himself grew weary of the whole charade, wishing only for the fidelity of our hearts, not our extensive performances of worship. We were missing the point, again. Some became complacent and fell back into our old ways. Amid all of it, barefoot and wild-haired, the prophets stood in the highways and byways, raising the alarm, channeling God's wrath, his heartache, his desperate, prodigal love, longing for us to return to him with bright hearts and pure spirits. The prophets begged and screamed. They tried. They tried to make us listen. But by the time Alexander the Great had conquered Persia and captured Jerusalem, their vocal chords had gone hoarse, and in futility, they faded into 400 years of silence.